Colossians 4:2–18 - How Christians Should Interact with Non-Believers (Session 22)

This episode is a verse-by-verse Bible study of Colossians 4:2–18, exploring the historical context, theological meaning, and faithful application of the passage within the Christian faith.

How do we, as Christians, interact wisely with non-believers? And what tactics can we employ to share our faith in a compassionate and understanding way? These are the riveting themes we unpack in our latest episode, dissecting Apostle Paul’s teachings in the powerful book of Colossians. We start by delving into the importance of maintaining an attitude of thanksgiving and alertness in our prayers, and how this influences our relationship with those outside our faith. Personal stories and insights bring the teachings to life, reminding us of the weight our actions hold in the world.

Moving on, we examine the importance of gracefully seasoning our conversations and being adequately prepared to answer the questions of those outside our faith. The discussion will challenge you to reflect on how you spend your time and the importance of maximizing every opportunity to share Christ's love and teachings. The episode wraps up with some information on our ministry, Reasoning Through the Bible, and how it can support you on your spiritual journey. Tune in, for an episode packed with valuable lessons, fascinating discussions, and life-transforming insights.

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:14

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name is Glenn and I'm here with Steve and I have a question today. The question is how should Christians treat those that are outside the church, that are non-Christian? How should we act towards non-Christians? And the good news is we don't have to wonder, because the Apostle Paul gives us some very clear instructions on how we should act towards outsiders. And I think, steve, that's very important because sometimes, when we get it right, it can be very good, but when we don't get it right, it can be very bad.

Speaker 1 0:46

Yeah, and I actually have a story where it came upon me how I was treating others as a Christian and it was an event on luncheon at the place where I worked. Everybody ordered, everybody got their lunch. I didn't get my lunch. A mistake was made. I said, don't worry about it. I said, give it to me to go, and as I was walking out, the manager came by and said was very apologetic about it, and I said, don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 1:11

Mistakes happened and as I was walking in my car, I realized you know what I treated that situation and that I was understanding to a company that might have been non-Christians and realized that they made a mistake. And I realized that I didn't even treat my family sometimes with that type of understanding. And it completely changed the way I was thinking of how I, as a Christian, needed to treat my family, fellow Christian family members as well as other Christian people outside of my family, to understand that I need to love them and work with them. It was an eye-opening experience to me to know that, look, I treat and give the benefit of the doubt to possibly non-Christian people more than I did even to the Christian family.

Speaker 2 2:03

Because non-Christians really do watch us and they notice how we act. So if you have your Bibles, open them to Colossians, chapter 4. We're going to start in verse 2 and the Apostle Paul gives us very practical, very down-to-earth advice on how we should act and how we should treat those who are outside. First we have some commands about prayer. It says here in Colossians 4, to devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it, with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the Word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned. That I may make it clear in the way that I ought to speak.

Speaker 2 2:55

In that passage, steve, I find something very interesting. He's asking the Colossian church to pray for him and to pray for us, he says, for his ministry team. I find this interesting because very often in the New Testament, when it asks for prayer, the prayer is for the Christians to have strength. The prayer is for Christians to be direct, for Christians to be effective. We don't see a lot of prayer for non-Christian people. In other words, the prayers are almost always for the Christians to be effective, not for the lost people to change, and I don't know if people have ever noticed that, but if you notice the pattern of the prayers, the prayer is always for the Christians.

Speaker 1 3:47

And that's what Paul is actually asking them to do is saying pray for us so that we might find opportunities to tell the other people that we come in contact here while we're in prison, about Jesus Christ and the gospel, the mystery of Christ, that both Jew and Gentile and we can all be in one in the body of Christ, and Paul mentions that that's the reason why he is there is because he has been preaching this gospel and why he's in prison. So, yes, here he is asking for prayer, not to get out of prison, but in order to find opportunities, and for the Holy Spirit to give him the words that he needs to say in order to tell others about the gospel, so that they might become Christians as well.

Speaker 2 4:35

Just an example to us. I can only imagine what I would be praying for in that situation. I would be whining and moaning, and not the apostle Paul. He's praying and help us to be effective. Look again at verse two. There's a couple of verbs in here that are critical. Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert, with an attitude of Thanksgiving. So he tells us how we should pray. First means to devote yourself actively, persist in prayer, to keep at it, to keep doing it. The second one means to stay awake or to be alert, to not fall asleep, and too often, steve, I'll have to confess I don't do either of those the way I should. I'm not devoted enough in prayer and with my crazy mind, I have trouble staying alert in prayer. There are techniques that we can use to do that, but the first one is just to realize who we're talking to, and that'll help us.

Speaker 1 5:35

It's the same verb that is used over when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he is crucified. He's going to a few hours, he's going to be arrested and he's going to be beaten, he's going to be scourged and he's praying earnestly to the Father in the Garden and he's asked his group of disciples to stay awake with him. And as he goes back he sees that they are asleep and he talks to him. He says couldn't you even keep watch while I was praying? It's this very same word Couldn't you even stay awake? Couldn't you even be alert? Here is an encouragement from Paul that we need to stay awake, we need to be alert in our prayers, we need to keep watch in our prayers and the attitude that we should have as thanksgiving while we're doing that.

Speaker 2 6:22

When we ask ourselves why he would say this, it's because these Christians at Colossae probably had the same fallible situation as we have. He needed to tell them devote yourselves to prayer, be alert. It's a good command for us. One of the next main points is that he tells them to be alert and devote yourself in prayer. This tells us some critical things about prayer. Biblical prayer is putting our mind in gear. We pray about things. We stay alert when we're prayer. We don't diminish our consciousness. We don't try to think of nothing. We don't try to fill our mind with emptiness. We don't try to turn inward. No, we turn outward and upward. We put our mind in gear. We are alert when we pray. That's the biblical command for prayer. Here's another question, steve. When we pray and it's really a rhetorical question, I guess how much time do we spend praying about my needs as opposed to thanking God and praising Him? How many times should we pray and just praise God as opposed to oh Lord? Here's this long list of things I want from you.

Speaker 1 7:35

And, as Paul says, that attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well. So in our prayers it should be things of praise and honor that God has given to us and praying for others. I do think that I know in my life so I want to speak about that Many times it's devoted to health issues and not many times devoted to thanksgiving, and it's something that I catch myself in and something that I try and override. But I do think sometimes it's a human nature to say here's the things that I need, lord, and I'm pleading for you and I'm praying for you to give them to me. But I think it's better for us if we just pray for thanksgiving and have thanks for what we have and what God has provided for us and pray for others. Pray for others that they can spread the word in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Seize Opportunities to Share Christ

Speaker 2 8:35

In verses three and four, he specifically says what they should pray for. So what does he ask for prayer for? He asks for prayer that God will open up a door for the word, that we may speak forth Christ and that I may make it clear that's his prayer, is that God's going to open doors and that I am able to speak clearly. That's what he's asking prayer for and that's a prayer that we could all pray for.

Speaker 1 9:02

Why do you think, glenn, that Paul doesn't say and as you pray for yourself, giving thanks to the Lord, pray that God will make it a way for me to get out of prison. Why do you think that Paul isn't saying that? I mean, I just find that interesting that he's not asking for that. He's not asking for them to pray that he might be out of prison and be found not guilty through the trial that he's about to have there. No, he's saying pray that there's going to be an opportunity for me to tell others about Christ. I think that gives us a picture of Paul and his personality and who he was.

Speaker 2 9:41

When we went through Acts we learned a lot about Paul's life and we learned that God was with Paul every step of the way and Paul knew very well who was in control here and who was directing his path. And at one point God speaks to Paul and he says I'm going to send you to Rome. No one's going to touch you until you get there. Paul, when he was in prison, he knew that God had put him there for a reason. God was paying his way. He got the Roman government to pay his way to Rome to do missions work and along the way he got a chance to sit down and write these letters which are the word of God to us. The next couple of verses, steve, if you could read verses five and six conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.

Speaker 1 10:33

Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each other.

Speaker 2 10:41

He says here in verse five to conduct yourself with wisdom towards outsiders, making most of the opportunities, or some of the translations say redeeming the time. So when he says outsiders, who's he talking about? Who are these outsiders?

Speaker 1 10:57

I think he's talking about non Christians, the people that are outside of the body of Christ, who he is dealing with. That's who I think he's talking about.

Speaker 2 11:06

Why would Christians need to be wise towards people that are outside? And he mentioned opportunities there, being careful to take advantage of opportunities. So really, two part question why would Christians need to be wise towards outsiders and what is it about opportunities that he's saying be careful and don't miss these?

Speaker 1 11:29

Well, the opportunity is the opportunity to tell them about the good news, to tell them the gospel, to tell them about Jesus Christ, to tell them about the mystery of Christ, and that's the opportunity that he's talking about there. So be wise about it, notice who you're talking to and what the situation is. Looking for opportunities to tell those outsiders about Christ.

Speaker 2 11:54

Again, verse five conduct yourself with wisdom towards the outsiders. Conduct yourself with wisdom and I think there's a chance here to realize what is wise and what is unwise. There's times when wisdom calls for discretion and to be silent sometimes, but the idea here he's saying is watch for these opportunities. There's times when the people around you are going to be ready to hear, and that's when we need to be wise and bring up the Lord is in these opportunities. Don't let these opportunities slip by. The most valuable thing we have is our time. Most valuable thing we have is our time. If we lose money, we can go out and make more. If wherever we're living burns down, we can go and find another place to live. But once you spend time can't get it back. It's gone and we only have a brief time here on earth. Our life is but a vapor and it's gone. We need to be very wise towards non-Christians and look for opportunities and don't waste those golden opportunities to tell them about the mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 13:07

In 1 Timothy 4-2, the same apostle says that we should be ready in season and out of season. That's what he says. That means we need to be ready whenever the person's ready and not when. Okay, it's been a long day and I'm kind of tired and I really just want to rest. Well, I bump into someone else. This is the golden opportunity. So I need to be ready in season and out of season when we see the opportunity to speak to others. We need to pray that the Lord is going to strengthen us, that the Lord's going to speak through us and he will, if we're just open to recognizing those opportunities. And he also says in here redeeming the time means to be wise with our time and don't waste it. We all need to stop doing things that waste our time and be more ready to do the Lord's work with our time. Then, in verse six, let your speech be, with grace, seasoned with salt. What does it mean to have our speech seasoned with salt?

Speaker 1 14:09

Well, you take salt and season your food in order to bring out more flavor of the food. Now, what happens if you over salt your food? It's too salty and you can't eat it, and you push the plate away. Why? Well, it's, the food's too salty, I can't eat it. So there's a good balance in seasoning. Paul is calling for the people to season their words, not just dump on them, and use discretion as far as when they are to talk to the people.

Speaker 2 14:43

Sometimes, when you're dealing with outsiders, a little bit of salt goes a long way. Sometimes we need a little more salt, sometimes a little less. That's the wisdom part. Salt tastes good, and so that's what he's saying is, when we talk to others about Christ, we should do so in a winsome manner. Our statements should be full of grace and in a way that the others would find that tastes good. Then at the end of verse six, he says there that you may know how to answer each one. Notice this verse how to answer each one.

Speaker 2 15:16

We are commanded here, commanded here, to be prepared to answer the questions of nonbelievers as we encounter them. How many, each one. So it's telling us here in very direct language Christian, you are commanded by the Lord, god, to be ready on how to give an answer to every non-believer you meet. That's what he's saying. Now that seems like an impossible task and I would submit humanly it is. But in the Lord there's a way.

Speaker 2 15:52

We season our speech with salt. We bring up questions, some of them we can know. The answer to the ones we don't, we say that's I've never thought of that. I'll think about it. Can we get together next time and talk about the Lord again, and maybe I'll have an answer by then. And you then engage them in long-term conversations. You go and study and learn the answer and next time that same question comes up you won't be fishing around for an answer. So again he tells us that we should be ready in season and out of season to have speech that is winsome towards others, that we should be able to Ephesians 4-6, answer each one. And I find this, steve, is just very lacking today. We as Christians tend to get in our holy huddles and we don't interact enough with non-believers and we don't really try to how to answer them, and we're violating these commands.

Speaker 1 16:48

Well, here's a question that comes up, Glenn Do we go about our life as we go out away from the church and live our life away from the church, meaning on Sunday or during the week, whenever we go to the church, as we go through our normal activities in life, do we go through them with an expectation that we might need to promote or tell someone the gospel? Think about that. Do we, as Christians, really live our lives always thinking, you know, I might have an opportunity today to tell somebody? I have to admit that I don't always think about that, but that's Paul is telling us here. That's really how we should go about our business and our lives always being prepared and looking for opportunities to tell others about Christ.

Paul's Greetings and Instructions

Speaker 2 17:38

People that take advantage of opportunities like that are people that are looking for opportunities like that, and when they do, they see more fruit, they see more people come to Christ, things like that. So the last section here in this chapter, paul is giving greetings and giving instructions to the people that he's sending on his way and to the people that are gonna receive the letter. So let's read the last section here, starting in Colossians, chapter four, verse seven, paul says this as to my affairs, ticacus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond servant and the Lord, will bring you information, for I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. And with him, onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number. They will inform you about the whole situation here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings, and also Barnabas' cousin, mark, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. And also Jesus, who is called justice. These are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision and they have proved to be an encouragement to me. A Paphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you, and his prayers that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God, for I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Speaker 2 19:22

Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and also Demas Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and also Nympha and the church that is in her house. When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and you, for your part, read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. Say to Archipus take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it. I, paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you.

Speaker 2 19:58

So, steve, a lot there. He's saying a lot of short things to a long group of people. In verses seven through nine. He apparently sent this letter to the Colossians by way of these two men, ticacus and Onesimus. Onesimus, as we said earlier, was the subject of the book of Philemon, so apparently now he is reconciled with whomever. In Philemon he was a runaway slave that Paul was sending back, but here Paul is sending Onesimus and Ticacus on this delegation to the church at Colossi. Success must have happened in this man, onesimus, his life, for he's doing ministry now on the road and on the mission field.

Speaker 1 20:39

We also see some pretty big names that are listed here. Luke is listed, Mark, John, Mark he is the writer of the Gospel of Mark. We see a Paphras, who is the one who began this church there in Colossi. So there's quite a bit of few people and heavy hitters, so to speak, that are there with Paul that Paul is talking about.

Speaker 2 21:03

He also and as we talked in an earlier session about slavery, because he talked in the last chapter about slavery there's two people in here he refers to as bondslaves, but they're bondslaves of Christ. But that's one of the things with this whole bondslave thing is that the picture of slavery we are to submit because Christ bought us, he paid for us we are if you're a Christian, we are bondslaves of Christ. Then in verse 10, he calls Aristarchus a fellow prisoner, which means that Paul's in prison when he wrote this. And Paul, as we pointed out earlier, paul doesn't complain about being a prisoner and then more Christians than just Paul were arrested. So if you were traveling around with Paul and doing missions, work in the field in these days fairly decent chance you're gonna run into some trouble with the local authorities.

Speaker 1 22:02

We also see that early on in one of his missionary journeys Paul had a fallout with John Mark Mark here. But we see apparently that they have reconciled. Because he speaks highly of Mark, he says hey, there's been words sent ahead to you about Mark. If he comes greeting with Christian love.

Speaker 2 22:23

And there's some of the things in here that ties some strings together with some other books. This man, Aristarchus that's mentioned here, that he mentions over in the book of Acts Paul, is on his missionary journeys in Acts, chapter 19. Paul gets to the town of Ephesus. There's so many Christians coming to Christ that people weren't buying the little souvenir idols and the people started a riot in the town of Ephesus. One of the people that they were going to that got pulled in front of this riot was this man, Aristarchus, and Paul wanted to go out there in front of the riot to get his friend and to there's a congregation we can talk about Jesus. And but his fellow said don't go out there, they'll tear you to pieces. So this man, Aristarchus, was following Paul around, part of his ministry team and again, riot in one town, arrested in the other. If you're a Christian in those days, then it's going to cost you Same thing today. If you're truly a Christian, it's going to cost you.

Speaker 1 23:30

We see here that there's all these different connections for the different people that are here. What does this do to the argument, glenn, that the Gospels and these letters that are here that with this what we call the Bible, these different epistles and things were written hundreds of years later? What does this do to this and this last part of Colossians here, where we see all these different characters, gospel writers, other characters from other epistles of events that happened? What does that do to that skeptic theory of the? Oh no, this was something that was written hundreds of years later.

Speaker 2 24:07

It basically destroys all of that and makes it very hollow criticisms. There's the concept that some scholars have called undesigned coincidences, which is you have these little details here that are fulfilled in several other books in the New Testament. This only really happens when you have true history. If, on the other hand, you had multiple authors in a different country in a different century trying to make this up, then the storylines would not align with these minor secondary and tertiary details, such as Aristarchus being in prison Another one that's in here.

Speaker 2 24:51

There's a man named Demas that's mentioned here. He's also mentioned in some of the other ones you mentioned. John Mark, it's really only can be held that these are true history and it has the ring of authenticity to it because of all of these details. One of the people he mentions is Luke, and he calls them a beloved physician. We have here Luke. It's a Greek name. He was a Gentile and he is therefore quite educated, and that aligns with the writing in the Gospel of Luke, which was a very educated style of Greek. So there's things like that that align in a way that the skeptics and critics just can't explain.

Speaker 1 25:35

It also aligns in the book of Acts that was written by Luke.

Speaker 1 25:39

Whenever Luke talks in the first person and he says we did this and we went here, meaning that he was with Paul, whenever he's describing those events in the book of Acts, well, we see here he's with Paul while he's in prison in Rome where he's writing this letter. One other thing before we leave, glenn what about this letter? Apparently, this letter, paul wrote a letter to Laodicea, but we don't have that. Wouldn't it be great if we had that letter to Laodicea? That and also what is Paul telling me says take this letter that I've written to you in Colossae, read it to the faithful, the Christians that are in Laodicea, the church there, and then also read the letter that I wrote to them. So we can see through that that that's how these letters were meant to be shared amongst the church body throughout the region. They weren't just written strictly to the churches, but they were shared. They were read out loud to the congregations and that's how the word spread and that's how it helped to get spread.

Speaker 2 26:43

And they must have taken that advice to heart because they're still sharing it and we're still sharing it. Which is what we're doing here is reading and sharing these books. As far as this letter to the Laodiceans, some of the scholars speculated it might have been one of the other existing New Testament books, but it is very possible it was a lost letter. That's not a problem, because the doctrine and the theology of how God inspired the word. He didn't inspire every single word that Paul ever said. He inspired some. If, for example, if some archaeologists were to dig up this letter to the Laodiceans tomorrow, it would not be part of the canon of scripture because God preserved the ones that God spoke through. Now, a couple of rabbit trails here before we end. A couple of small little little strings to tie it together here In verse 14, at the end of verse 14, it mentions a man named Demas.

Speaker 2 27:44

It just mentions him in passing. Demas sends his greetings. Now, Demas was with Paul and Luke and Demas was therefore a Christian. He was following him around. However, Paul's last letter that he ever wrote, 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 10, Paul has this little phrase in there that says Demas has forsaken me, having loved the present world and has departed for Thessalonica. Here's why we bring this up. This man, Demas, here at the end of Colossians, was with Paul doing Christian service work. By the time we get to the end of Paul's life and the end of 2 Timothy, Paul says he forsook me, having loved the world, and he left.

Speaker 2 28:27

So some people, Steve, have taken that to mean here's an example of somebody that was a Christian and lost their salvation. And the reasoning goes if he departed from Paul and he loved the world, how could he be a Christian? And I would say that's not necessarily a good argument that says people can lose their salvation. I just take it to mean that Deimos was not a perfect Christian. I mean all of us are guilty of sinning every now and then. I mean there's times where Christians start doing Christian service work and find that, wow, this was tougher than I thought. I really need to go back and do some other kind of work. Paul, being at the end of his life, said he loved the world more than the world.

Speaker 2 29:14

We already talked about Aristarchus, caught in a riot, thrown in prison. Mark went back and what happened to Mark later? Mark was accepted back into the fold and was useful for service. So just because Mark left doesn't mean he's forever lost to his salvation, and we can't have people falling out of salvation and back in again every time they commit a sin. So the only reason I bring this up is because this man, Deimos, has been used as an example of somebody that was Christian and then lost their salvation, and it's just a very poor argument and it's not what the text says.

Speaker 1 29:55

The text doesn't say that he lost his salvation. It just says that him wanting to go back to the world has abandoned me. He didn't abandon Christ. Doesn't say that he abandoned Christ. Says that he abandoned Paul. But we see that when we've seen that through the centuries, people on the missionary field some of them, have gone back from being missionaries, gone back to their home churches or gone back to their home towns and they still serve the Lord in that capacity. They're just not on the mission field anymore. And this doesn't say to me that Deimos deconstructed and went away and lost his salvation. It says what it says. Hey, Deimos is no longer with me on the missionary trips. He abandoned me because he went and let the world pull him away. Doesn't say that he lost his salvation.

Speaker 2 30:47

Now one more in the middle of verse 15. It mentions a person named Nympha and it says there's a church in this person's home. In the original language sometimes it's hard to tell whether they're male or female, and the language scholars tell us that sometimes it's difficult to tell whether some of these names were male or female, but apparently this was a woman who had a church in her home. This was another example, steve. This was a woman that had or most probably a woman was leading a church in her home. It's just one more example of a woman that was held in high regard, that was doing great work for the Lord, that was a key person in a local congregation and Paul was praising her for it. I just find that the whole idea of Christianity being against women is just hollow. And to wrap up the entire book, at the end of this, he has a benediction in verse 17,. He wrote See to it that you complete the ministry which you have received in the Lord. See to it that you complete the ministry which you have received in the Lord. So with our last words in the book of Colossians, the Lord gives all of us a ministry. See to it that you complete it, don't quit. See to it that you finish it, and that is a great benediction and a great end to the book of Colossians. Thanks to our listeners. Thank you for being with us for all this time.

Speaker 2 32:21

Our ministry is Reasoning through the Bible and what we do is this verse by verse, exegesis of the text and we try to solve a few questions as we go along the way, and our ministry includes this. It also has, if you go to our website, reasoning through the Biblecom. We have lesson plans there that correspond to all of our lessons, like we're in a church. If you're a pastor or a Sunday morning Bible leader, a small group leader, we have lesson plans where you can watch our videos and take our lesson plans and go teach a class. That's why we're here. All these are offered off our website free of charge, and we could also use your feedback. If you've enjoyed these, please send us your notes. A lot of what we do is kind of one way going out to you. Please send us a note and tell us what you think, and if you want to send a little donation along the way, we'd appreciate that as well.

Speaker 1 33:16

Thank you so much for watching and listening and, as Paul sent to the Colossians, may grace be with you.